


five ways of looking at a homicide

by ConvenientAlias



Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: 5+1 Things, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-17 01:31:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15450402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/pseuds/ConvenientAlias
Summary: Five people Asher talks to about the night of Sam's murder and one person he doesn't.





	five ways of looking at a homicide

1\. Annalise

The Keating Five, Annalise calls them. But they aren’t, really. From day one they’re fragmented, rarely able to really work together, much better at competing than collaborating. It’s about the trophy, the prestige, the approval in Annalise’s eyes. It’s about winning. It’s about being better. They aren’t a five. They are a one and one and one and one and one—that’s just not as snappy.

Though, maybe that’s just Asher’s perception. As time goes by he can see that the other four get along just fine, despite their sniping. They go to parties without him, go out drinking without him. Sometimes he walks into the room and he can tell they’re scrambling to change the subject. Sometimes their humor is a little too biting in his direction, or he sees them exchanging glances as if to remark on his idiocy. The Keating Five is the Keating Four Plus One.

Until he fucks up spectacularly and apparently manslaughters his way into the clique. If he’d known that was the way in…well, he wouldn’t have done it sooner, but…actually there’s no real end to that joke, no way to make this funny. It’s a disaster. It’s bloody, gory, horrific, and all his fault. And there’s nothing good about it except

“They killed Sam, Asher!”

Asher doesn’t even process the words, but they make Connor freeze at the door. Annalise’s gaze is grave. “It wasn’t Bonnie. She just said that to protect them, but Sam attacked Rebecca and they killed Sam, and I’ve been protecting them all since.”

And none of it really makes sense—they what? They how? They why?—but suddenly the Keating one and one and one and one and one becomes the Keating Five. Yeah, it takes blackmail and covering up another murder to make it happen. But for the first time Asher can remember, they work together.

 

* * *

 

2\. Bonnie

He spends all night too freaked out about his own murder to even think about Sam, but as day dawns it sluggishly occurs to Asher that maybe he really should have some questions. And that Bonnie lied to him. It shouldn’t be shocking—he’s seen Annalise and Bonnie lie so many times before. Yet it somehow hurts. It’s like hearing his dad sent an innocent man to jail. He believes somehow that the people he loves don’t do bad things, not really, but it’s not true. Really, really not true because apparently his four best (really? Best?) friends committed a murder and never told him about it.

Bonnie’s version is brief, apparently secondhand from Annalise and what she’s already cobbled together.

“Rebecca was out of control. She broke into Annalise’s house to search Sam’s computer to find evidence that he killed Lila, which…we all now know he did, but still, she shouldn’t have done that.” Bonnie shrugs. “The other four came by to chase her down, and they were there when Sam attacked her. They fought him and Wes bashed his head in with the trophy.”

Asher frowns. “The trophy?” Then it hits him like…well, kind of like a metal trophy might bash someone over the head. “Oh my God. I didn’t have the trophy that night. Wait, Wes?”

“Yes, Wes.” Bonnie shrugs again. “But they were all culpable. And now they’re all culpable for Sinclair’s death too. So they’ll back you up.” She pats his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.”

When she touches him, his libido stirs to life. He hates himself for it. They’re through, after all, and more to the point, he killed a woman last night, and it’s been only two days since his dad killed himself. Why is his body so stupid?

_Oobladi, ooblada, life goes on_ , a voice sings cheerfully in the back of his head. He curses, and Bonnie says, “Annalise will take care of everything. And your classmates are practiced at lying.”

Yeah. Apparently.

 

* * *

 

  
3\. Laurel

The first eyewitness he goes to is Laurel. Not because Laurel likes him. She doesn’t really, but she’s not as harsh as some of the others, and she’s calmer. The best choice would probably be Wes, but Wes isn’t leaving his apartment, and honestly? Asher isn’t touching that with a ten foot stick.

“So,” he says, after dropping in on Laurel’s house. “You…shot Annalise.”

“I did what I had to,” Laurel says. She pushes her hair behind her ears. “I’ve visited her. They say she’ll be fine.”

Asher will have to visit Annalise eventually. She got herself shot for his sake, to cover for him. He can’t face her yet, but sooner or later he’ll have to.

But yeah. Not yet. “You seem to be pretty chill about it all,” he says carefully. “Is that because you have experience after murdering Sam?”

“I don’t think you should be throwing stones,” Laurel says.

“Obviously not. I just…seriously? _You guys_ killed him? I was all in for Annalise.”

“Yeah. So is everybody.” Laurel shrugs. “It’s a good thing she knows how to take care of herself, right?”

“And us too. Um, but, what happened there?”

“Annalise told you, didn’t she?” Laurel sits down on the couch. She has a “done with this bullshit” look on her face, but for once that isn’t going to make Asher back down. “He hurt Lila. We killed him. The end.”

“Bonnie told me Wes killed him.”

Laurel’s face closes off. “We all did our part.”

“Okay, but, it was Wes?”

“Wes hit him over the head, but we’d all been fighting. We all entered illegally, and we all assisted in hiding the body. We were accomplices. Wes is hardly more guilty than any of us. And he saved Rebecca’s life.” Laurel leans forward. “Connor and Michaela like to blame everything on Wes, and maybe so does Bonnie, but that’s bullshit. We’re all culpable, and Wes didn’t do anything wrong. Like I said. Don’t throw stones.”

Asher nods. “I wouldn’t. Just…curious.”

 

* * *

 

  
4\. Connor

“I didn’t do shit,” Connor says. “So why do I get shit, anyways?”

Something Asher’s learned from his time staying with Connor and Oliver is that Connor has Issues. Some nights he’ll get a little too drunk, and then he’ll get panicky and argumentative and rant about what a bad person he is or how the world is going to hell. Oliver says this is because Connor used to be addicted to drugs. Connor says, when they’re in private and it’s just him and Asher, that it’s all Wes’s fault. Or all Annalise’s fault, depending on the night.

“All I did was drive a car. And they basically forced me into it.” Connor runs a hand through his hair. Asher used to awkwardly think it was kind of sexy when he did that (doesn’t make a guy gay to know another guy’s got game, right?) but now he’s come to see it as a nervous tic and it almost drives him insane too. “All this I-would-go-to-jail-too stuff is bullshit. I didn’t do anything.”

“I’m not saying you did, dude. But it’s kind of great that you covered up for them, since it was self defense and all. I mean…you saved my skin, at least.”

Connor laughs bitterly. “Yeah, and when the law finds out that I saved your worthless ass they’ll give me a goddamn medal.”

Drunk Connor is mean. He’s also horny, but that side only comes out around Oliver. To Asher, he’s just mean.

“I didn’t do shit,” Connor says. “I just…I wanted to do the right thing, right? Wes tells me Rebecca could get murdered, of course I drove to the house. He was breathing down my back. Scary guy, right? It’s always the quiet ones.” He shivers at that, but to be fair his body’s been shaking a little this whole time, quivering with pent up energy just a millimeter beneath the skin. “I didn’t even hit the guy, I just told him to back off. It’s Michaela who fucking threw him off a balcony—”

“Wait, Michaela threw him off a balcony?”

“Yeah, everyone in the Keating Five is a psycho, deal with it. Except me!” Connor throws his hands up. “I. Am. A good. Guy.”

“Sure you are, buddy.” Asher goes to pat him on the back, but he stands and walks away. To the sink, to get a drink of water.

“I would have gone to the police,” Connor mutters, after he’s gulped down a glass. He’s calmed down a little. Now he’s just bitter, not freaked out. “It’s all because of Annalise. And Wes. That snake.”

 

* * *

 

  
5\. Michaela

Michaela says it’s just sex, but things are different between them now. Sometimes they actually talk about things. Asher tells her about his dad and how he misses him, and though she scoffs (she doesn’t understand how he could actually be close to his parents, and she never respected his dad), she does listen. He talks about how he feels about Sinclair being dead, the guilt. She says, “God, you’re normal.”

“Yeah?”

“Feeling so bad about someone being dead. You’re so normal.” She shakes her head, but it doesn’t seem like an insult.

“You guys feel bad too, though. I mean…now that I know about Sam, it’s obvious. You’re always tense, and it’s obvious you feel guilty.”

Michaela shudders. “I wasn’t the one who killed him. I just covered it up.” She puts a hand over her face.

“But you did throw him off a balcony.”

“Who told you that?”

“Uh, Connor. He got drunk. I’m sure it was in the middle of a fight, so…”

“It was an accident. I didn’t fucking bludgeon him with a trophy, so I’m still not the murderer here. That would be Wes. I’m just complicit, and basically in Annalise’s pocket. But whatever.”

Asher touches her shoulder. “Hey. It’s okay if you feel guilty. I…”

“This isn’t turning me on,” Michaela says flatly. “So either let’s get back to business or you can leave.”

Asher sighs. But it’s a Saturday night and she’s right, wasting it on regrets is pointless, and he overthinks all this mess too much already. He kisses her neck, sucking down until he hears her moan and knows she’s forgotten all about the faux pas of actually asking her if she has feelings.

 

* * *

 

+1. Wes

Asher doesn’t ask Wes about it.

He doesn’t.

Can’t think of how to go about it for one thing. Already has the details, for another. He knows how Wes felt about Rebecca; they all know. It was self defense (sort of), hardly even murder. He doesn’t blame Wes, and maybe if they talked about it he could tell Wes that. But it’s none of his business. Out of everyone in the house, he is possibly the only one uninvolved. His absolution means nothing.

He doesn’t know how to approach Wes easily anymore. It’s harder to tease him without feeling a little bad. There’s exhaustion in Wes’s eyes, if you know where to look, and Asher knows they must mirror his own. They are both killers. They are both tired.

But if he looks too long at Wes or thinks too hard about how to talk to him, how to help him, then his head starts too hurt (or maybe it’s not his head, but some other part), and he starts feeling even a little panicked (there’s no way to make this _better_ , make this _right_ , so what’s the point of trying?) and he ends up going out and finding someone else to talk to instead. Connor, Oliver, Michaela. Another classmate. Even a stranger at a bar.

He will ignore Wes like he ignores the ghost of Sinclair, and hope that everything somehow turns out just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Why did I write this fic (when I'm not even that into Asher)?  
> Because seriously, we don't get to see his reaction to finding out the truth like, at all. I mean, and does he even know the whole truth? Who knows?  
> But I'm betting at least Wes never talked to him about it because like. Can't picture it. It wouldn't happen.  
> I'd love to hear from you in the comments :) or come talk to me on tumblr at convenientalias.


End file.
